Effects of intranasal oxytocin and early life stress on neural correlates of caregiving and social sensitivity

Previous work has demonstrated oxytocin to have a critical role in parent-infant bonding, and administration of this peptide has been shown to increase sensitivity to social and salient stimuli in humans. However, studies in mostly rodents have also shown that neural sensitivity to oxytocin depends strongly on an individual's early life situation, such as the quality of parental care. From research in developmental psychology it is known that sensitive caregiving is of utmost importance for the development of a child's cognitive and emotional abilities, protects against adult psychopathology, and transmits over generations. Whereas the animal work predicts a role for altered sensitivity to oxytocin in the transmission on parenting, it is currently unknown to what extend this applies to humans. In the present study we investigate the effects of oxytocin on the neural circuitries involved in caregiving and social sensitivity, and specifically address the role of participants' exposure to insensitive caregiving. We used intranasal oxytocin administration and fMRI in 24 nulliparous women. Exposure to harsh parenting was measured by retrospective self-report. We focus on four cornerstones of sensitive caregiving: empathy, social reward, emotional learning and emotion regulation. We expect that oxytocin increases neural reactivity of the network involved in caregiving consisting of the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal areas and striatum, but that this effect depends on experienced parental care. This study provides insight in the neuroendocrine mechanism underlying the first step in the detrimental cycle of insensitive caregiving in females.